1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock.
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.
2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh,
stir up your might
and come to save us!
3 Restore us, O God;
let your face shine, that we may be saved! – Asaph cries out to the Shepherd four very, I think, reasonable requests. He wants the Shepherd to lead them. to lighten the Way, to come and save them and to restore them! A very significant progression from a lost situation to a healthy normal relationship!
4 O LORD God of hosts,
how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears
and given them tears to drink in full measure.
6 You make us an object of contention for our neighbours,
and our enemies laugh among themselves.
7 Restore us, O God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved! – Comment: In some ways these four verses belong at the beginning of the Psalm. They clearly state the reason why the people, the sheep, desperately need the Shepherd to take action. Presumably because of rebellion in the ranks, God is angry and fed them tear soaked bread, and caused them to weep buckets. They are scorned by surrounding nations and desperately need restoration.
As I began to read this psalm the words of the song ‘Shine, Jesus, shine’ sprang into my mind. The refrain reads as follows
Shine, Jesus, shine
Fill this land with the Father’s glory
Blaze, Spirit, blaze
Set our hearts on fire
Flow, river, flow
Flood the nations with grace and mercy
Send forth your word
Lord, and let there be light
In our modern age the use of the word ‘shepherd’ to describe God demands a lot of digging deep to get the richness of what is meant! ‘Mechanics’ looking after our cars, or ‘financiers’ advising about money are words much more commonly used these days than ‘shepherds’! Shepherds used to sleep with their sheep to guard from wolves or bears. They used to name their sheep. As boys living on a sheep farm we had pet lambs which followed us, they came running as soon as they saw us, and we ran to them! In Ethiopia, if we desired to eat lamb we had to buy a sheep and kill it and slaughter it ourselves. I was not able to kill a sheep! One Saturday we brought a sheep, planning to let Kassa, our gardener kill it on Monday for us. But it had never slept outside its owner’s protection. We had to prepare the laundry and let it sleep in the safety of inside. As it came inside the bleating stopped! The Asaph cried ‘Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel’.
1 Samuel 17: 34&35 – David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him.
Prayer: Lord, hear my cry. Heal my brokenness, mend my heart, and let your mighty hand of restoration rest upon my life. Rebuild what is broken, fill what is empty, and bring me from sorrow into joy, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.“